Singapore: The Rugged Society

Into government buildings bedecked with
red and white bunting last week filed 10,000 Singaporeans with two
things in common. All were 19 years old, and all were being drafted. It
was a new experience for Asia's newest state, which has never even had
an army before, but it did not mean that Singapore was preparing for
war. The creation of a National Service was simply the latest and most
dramatic step in Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's campaign to meld
Singapore's polyglot population (1.5 million Chinese, 300,000 Malays,
175,000 Indians) into what he calls a "Rugged Society." Says Lee:
"Societies...